Foley & Lardner, a major DC law firm, is rolling out the red carpet to honor one of its partners — Cleta Mitchell — later this month at a big shindig in Tampa. Many right wingers will be there to partake in the salute to her – Jim DeMint (SC), James Inhofe (OK), Marco Rubio (FL), Rick Santorum, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, Al Cardenas, Chairman of American Conservative Union and Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice-President, of National Rifle Association, among other luminaries. You can see the e-blast of the invite below the fold.

As a Republican candidate for President, I had hoped to be invited to speak at CPAC 2012, but once again I was not invited to join my fellow candidates. So I applied to purchase an exhibitor booth at the CPAC trade show. Having been denied a booth last year because CPAC claimed it was “sold out,” I applied extra early this time on November 30, 2011. I sent in my application in so early in fact that I qualified for the “early bird discount.” I was sure this time that CPAC could not use the same excuse as last year, but it turned out that it did. CPAC has denied my request to purchase a booth at their trade show for the second year in a row.

I have never heard back from anyone with CPAC, but they issued a statement when asked about my application on January 24, 2012. CPAC communications director Kristy Campbell told BuzzFeed, “The ACU is sold out of exhibitor space for CPAC 2012, and priority is given to previous sponsors and partner organizations.”

In a little noticed ruling last week, the District of Columbia Office of Human Rights denied the [American Conservative Union Foundation] ACUF’s effort to throw out a complaint alleging that it had discriminated against Karger on the basis of his sexuality. Karger has said he was deprived of a booth and speaking spot at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, which is a project of the ACUF, because he is gay.

The ACUF tried to have the complaint dismissed, arguing that it doesn’t run CPAC — rather, the related but separate American Conservative Union does — and has a First Amendment right to chose who speaks at its events. The group also argued that its disagreement with Karger was over his support for gay marriage and not his own sexual orientation. Gustavo Velasquez, the Office of Human Rights’ director, rebuffed that argument, and found that “an investigation is warranted” into the causes of Karger’s exclusion from CPAC.

…The resulting proceedings could prove uncomfortable for the conservative movement at a time when the debate over gay rights is at the forefront of the public consciousness. Karger is hardly alone when it comes to feeling excluded from the Republican Party because of his sexuality. GOProud, a pro-gay rights conservative group, was also barred from CPAC this year. Its executive director, Jimmy LaSalvia, told The Huffington Post that the group “will cooperate with any government investigation we are asked to participate in.”

Karger isn’t going to back down, and said that he had a list of 10 demands that he wants met by Cleta’s ACU before he will drop the complaint.

Mitchell currently represents National Organization for Marriage, the leading national organization opposed to permitting civil marriage for same-sex couples, in its efforts in Minnesota to fight campaign finance limits and campaign donor disclosure laws.

Mitchell led an attempt to repeal civil marriage for same-sex couples in Washington, D.C.

Talk about an oxymoron”GAY REPUBLICAN”What is it about some people that they vote against their own best interests?Jews for Jesus-Jews for Nazis-Blacks for KKK-Poor for Romney.Will wonders never cease?